The Evolution Of Dorian Gray In The Picture Of Dorian Gray

1. Introduction

The picture of Dorian Gray is a gothic novel written by Oscar Wilde and published in 1890. Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish poet and playwright who became one of London’s most popular playwrights in 1890. With “The Picture of Dorian Gray” which would be his first and only novel, he refined his ideas about the supremacy of art and beauty.

This novel tells the story of a young and handsome man, known as Dorian Gray, who wished for eternal youth and beauty. His wish was fulfilled by means of a portrait, made by his dear friend Basil Hallward. The portrait, rather than Dorian, was getting older and bore all his marks of age as well as his scars. Once Dorian realised that he could keep those qualities for the rest of his life, he became obsessed with them, and turned into an evil person.

In the novel we assist a metamorphosis. Dorian went from being very innocent and pure to a horrible devil. This is going to be the core of the analysis that I am going to broach.

In this essay we are going to focus on the evolution of Dorian’s character, from the early chapters to the end of the novel.

In his life, Dorian went through three phases: he was innocent at first, then stepped into the debauchery and lastly had a major downfall. Those three phases determined his real identity and gave to the audience a representation of his real character. These three phases are topics that could be treated individually.

The first theme, as mentioned before is innocence. It is one of the main themes and a message that the author tries to send to the readers. It explains that an innocent person is easy to manipulate simply through words and manipulative behaviours. This is exactly how Lord Henri managed to manipulate Dorian and transform him into what he became. Since Dorian believed in Lord Henri, he followed his path and ended up being worse than him. Because of his innocence he was unaware of the manipulative mindset that Lord Henri had. The only way he could have kept his innocence was if he listened to his friend Basil Hallward.

Then, the debauchery is the phase where the reader can witness Dorians metamorphosis. At this stage he was excessively abusing of sex, alcohol and drugs. At that point he tried to experience life and pleasures, but those pleasures were harmful to his health and image. This topic is the main reason why the novel was considered immoral, and even got banned.

Lastly, Dorian enters the downfall phase. Although Dorian was very wealthy, innocent and handsome, he also carried qualities that led to his downfall. The three aspects that made Dorian Gray’s tragic downfall are his desperation in the pursuit for perfection and his desire to preserve youth and beauty. He pays a very high price in order to keep them. He sells his soul. At the end of the novel he regrets his choices, but unfortunately dies while trying to restart a new life.

These themes highlight the steps of Dorian’s transformation throughout the novel.

Therefore, the research question is ´ In how far did Dorian Gray evolve throughout the entire novel? `.

In order to better analyse Dorian’s evolution, the essay will be sectioned into three parts, each dedicated to a stage of his life.

2. Innocence

In the Picture of Dorian Gray, Wilde shows how youth and beauty corrupt and change a human being, by taking away his values. Dorian plays a symbolic role by being innocent at the beginning and then giving up his values under the control of Lord Henri.

Firstly, the novel introduces Dorian as a young man with a pure heart and mind, but very easy to influence. He was never manipulated nor swayed by words. However, he was ready to learn about adulthood and the world. Not even a chapter and a half later Dorian started experiencing life, but on the sin side. At this point Lord Henri had entered his life. He saw that he was very innocent, so he tried to change him, and achieved his goal.

Secondly, since he was very easy to manipulate, one could think that he was never innocent, and that he always hid his evil side. Even Lord Henri thought that Dorian’s pure self, hid many horrible and shameful desires. He said

‘ You, Mr. Gray, you yourself, with your rose-red youth and your rose-white boyhood, you have had passions that have made you afraid, thoughts that have filled you with terror, day-dreams and sleeping dreams whose mere memory might stain your cheek with shame’.

Here the colours that Henri used to describe Dorian, have a symbolic link to Dorian’s innocence. The rose-red youth is a childish era of Dorian’s life, while the white colour of his boyhood, symbolizes innocence and purity. While Henri attributes to Dorian his innocent traits, he takes those away at the same time. He claims that Dorian has had shameful desires and dreams that transformed him. Therefore, he is not as innocent as he appears.

Thirdly, his innocence was taken away by the pursuit of perfection.

It was when Lord Henri told him that he should make the most out of his beauty, that he became obsessed with it. Dorian was ready to give his soul in order to keep his youth and beauty and became obsessed with it.

He said ‘If it were only the other way! If it were I who was always young, and the picture that was to grow old! I would give my soul for that’. This shows how much he desired to stay eternally young and handsome just like his portrait. This could also be the spell that sold his soul to the devil, as he wished to be forever young.

In the novel youth and beauty play a major role in shaping Dorian’s life. Dorian’s evilness was invisible to people’s eyes for the simple fact that he was beautiful. His youth and beauty hid his dark soul and he appeared as an innocent human being. Basil himself said: ‘you, Dorian, with your pure, bright, innocent face, and your marvellous untroubled youth – I can’t believe anything against you’. Dorian’s innocence completely faded once he broke Sybil Vane’s heart. When Dorian left her, she decided to commit suicide. His beautiful portrait (that bore all his marks of age and evilness) began to alter, and to keep others from witnessing this, he locked it away. From then, his innocence was completely gone.

Finally, it’s important to notice that youth and beauty represent innocence. The main characters that represent innocence at the beginning of the novel were Dorian and Sybil Vane.

Dorian’s innocence was perfectly portrayed by the picture, which is the masterpiece in the novel. The picture was perfect, beautiful, pure and that’s what made him go crazy.

Sybil was an innocent human being until she died. Dorian saw her innocence the first time they met, and it reminded him of himself. He said ‘Sibyl? Oh, she was so shy and so gentle. There is something of a child about her’. At that point he was still a young, handsome, pure and innocent man.

3. The debauchery

After his short love story with Sybil, Dorian entered a new stage of his life. He completely changed his attitude towards people and began experiencing life. To understand the reasons of Dorian’s character change, it is important to find the source.

Firstly, influences play a major role in shaping Dorian’s new mindset. Lord Henri and Basil Hallward play a major role by influencing Dorian’s actions and his metamorphosis into an evil human being.

On the one hand, Dorian influenced Basil by confusing and changing his feelings towards him. It wasn’t intentional, but it surely helped Basil create a supernatural masterpiece: the portrait of Dorian Gray. Basil was aware of the effect that his feelings towards Dorian made to himself. He said, ‘He is all my art to me now’, meaning that he admired him so much that he could not get him out of his head. Lord Henri on the other hand, can be considered as Dorian’s mentor. He was the one that filled Dorian’s head with an evil philosophy. Basil even said to Henri ‘Don’t spoil him. Don’t try to influence him. Your influence would be bad’. He did not want Henri to approach Dorian, because he knew from the beginning that he would be a bad influence on him.

Throughout the novel Henri remains Dorian’s source of evilness and he uses persuasion to transform Dorian into a monster, just like him. Right after their first meeting, Lord Henri said that ‘to influence a person is to give him one’s own soul’. This fast forwards to when the portrait takes his soul and transforms into something that was birthed by Henri. Since Lord Henri had a manipulative way to talk to people, Dorian got easily caught under his spell and took his word for it.

At the end, Henri realised on his own that what he taught Dorian had a drastic impact on his life. Lord Henri though knew what the practical form of his philosophy would look like. He said that:

‘crime belongs exclusively to the lower orders. I don’t blame them in the smallest degree. I should fancy that crime is to them what art is to us, simply a method of procuring extraordinary sensations’

This quote shows his limits. It also explains the link between criminals and honourable citizens, such as Dorian and Lord Henri. Basically, Henri knew to what extent he could apply his philosophy, but he did not acknowledge the fact that other people could not see it. This is the reason why, as mentioned previously, Basil did not want Lord Henri to approach such an innocent and naïve person as Dorian.

Secondly, Lord Henri’s values changed Dorian and it was shown in the way he treated Sybil Vane. That is to say that Dorian’s transformation begun once he met Sybil Vane. Since he was attracted by her acting skills, when she stopped acting, he stopped caring about her. He then decided to leave her and acted careless towards her tears. He despised her and talked down to her when he wanted to end their relationship. He told her:

‘You have killed my love. You used to stir my imagination. Now you don’t even stir my curiosity. You simply produce no effect. I loved you because you were marvellous because you had genius and intellect, because you realized the dreams of great poets and gave shape and substance to the shadows of art. You have thrown it all away. You are shallow and stupid’

In this paragraph, Dorian despises Sybil and admits that the only thing that made him love her was her talent. The vocabulary that he uses is disrespectful and full of hate. The way he treated her, showed the dark side of him that no one had seen yet. That was the first mark that his portrait bore. After this episode, he tried every type of excesses: drugs, sexual intercourse with men and women, alcohol and cigarettes. He also became a murderer in order to keep his pure image intact. He ruined many lives and people started to notice his dark side.

The first person that noticed that his soul had changed was Basil Hallward, the painter. It is possible that Basil saw Dorian’s dark side when he drew the portrait. If Basil didn’t see it, the portrait probably wouldn’t have changed. Once he saw the deformed portrait, he tried to help Dorian but in vain. Dorian decided to kill him in order to destroy any possible witness.

Thirdly, Oscar Wilde uses a different technique to make the scene ghoulish and to better integrate the devil’s presence. The debauchery is then set in a gothic environment which makes the novel, a gothic novel.

A gothic novel is based off Romanticism, but it is also defined as a novel that deals with scary and supernatural objects. Basically, gothic novels combine romance and horror in a psychological way. Paintings often play a sinister role in Gothic fiction. The picture hidden in Dorian’s attic is the most disturbing portrait in Wilde’s book, but it is not the only one. There is also a picture gallery in his house with all his ancestor’s portraits. Dorian felt like those portraits were spying/looking at him, so he started wondering whether ‘some strange poisonous germ crept from body to body till it had reached his own?’. This quote enlightens the roots of Dorians evilness and spirit. It is possible that his dark side was a family thing and that his fate was already scripted ahead.

Another gothic element is the devil incarnated by the portrait and by Lord Henri. The portrait of Dorian Gray incarnates, in a supernatural way, the devil. The fact that the portrait can change and bear Dorian’s scars, is the first sign of the devil taking Dorian’s soul and transforming it into something horrific. The second devil incarnation is Lord Henri, who manipulates and corrupts Dorian into believing that his youth and beauty are essential and that he should make the most of those. Dorian took this advice very seriously and became a worst version of Lord Henri. This made him step into the debauchery.

Other gothic elements are supernatural factors. It is evident that in this novel the supernatural is portrayed by the changing portrait and Dorian’s eternal youth. In real life nobody could stay young and beautiful forever, but in a gothic novel everything is possible. The presence of these supernatural factors fit perfectly with the novel, because Dorian in order to make the spell work sells his soul to the devil and dives into the debauchery.

At the end when Dorian dies, the portrait goes back to its original appearance, while Dorian becomes immediately old. Unfortunately, Dorian tried to come back to a normal life, but the supernatural portrait stopped him and killed him from the inside. In that scene the portrait incarnates the devil who stands in front of Dorian and watches him die, as a victory.

4. The downfall

Firstly, after Dorian took distance from Lord Henri, he became paranoid and was in fear of his life. In addition to that Sybil Vane’s brother, James Vane, was looking forward to killing him.

‘but now and then a thrill of terror ran through him when he remembered that, pressed against the window of the conservatory, like a white handkerchief, he had seen the face of James Vane watching him.’

In this quote, James Vane is compared to a white handkerchief pressed against the window. This comparison gives to James a ghoulish look. He was obsessed by Dorian and studied every single one of his moves. At the same time, it shows Dorian’s paranoids.

It was after James’s death, that Dorian realised that he had been manipulated by Henri. He finally realised the wrong he had done to people and had many regrets.

Secondly, at the end of the novel, Dorian decided that it was time for a fresh start. The end of the novel describes Dorian’s downfall. He realised that he had become an evil monster and decided to end that nightmare. He was at that moment a broken man.

Dorian then decided to destroy the portrait, because he hoped to start a new fresh life. But unfortunately, this backfired on him and the portrait, which was the Devil, killed him and returned to its original looks.

However, it is possible that Dorian had already seen his death coming:

‘Life had suddenly become too hideous a burden for him to bear. The dreadful death of the unlucky beater, shot in the thicket like a wild animal, had seemed to him to prefigure death for himself also’.

This quote is a warning to the reader that Dorian is going to die at the end of the novel. In addition to that, Dorian himself, saw his death before the time came and felt the Devil burn him from the inside.

Finally, ‘It was his beauty that had ruined him, his beauty and the youth that he had prayed for. But for those two things his life might have been free from stain’. He realised that to live beautifully he had to destroy the beauty in him. Despite his regrets beauty and youth remain extremely important at the end of the novel.

Wilde makes use of the novel to send a message: ‘Resist the society’s emphasis on physical beauty in order to live forever beautifully’. People should enjoy beauty and youth while it lasts.

Another important message that the novel sends is ‘Nobody can get away with everything’. Dorian tried to escape the past by destroying the portrait, but instead he payed for all the lives he had ruined and took away. The price Dorian had to pay for them is awfully high. He gave nothing less than his soul.

5. Conclusion

All things considered, it seems reasonable to say that Dorian’s evolution was devastating and was primarily caused by his desire to keep his, beauty, youth and enjoy the pleasures of life.

The novel portrays the destruction of innocence through Dorian’s character. Dorian was very innocent before meeting Lord Henri. He could not distinguish good from bad. That is what made Lord Henri catch interest in him. Once he understood how Dorian was, he decided to take that innocence away and tried to instil his values in him. Unfortunately, Dorian did not understand that and got trapped.

Every change Dorian went through was brought by Lord Henri. If he had not been such a bad influence on him, and him not such an innocent, young and naïve guy, he probably would have never fallen in that trap.

Essentially, Lord Henri trapped him into his world of evilness and as soon as it degenerated, he took a few steps out of the situation. He realised how bad Dorian’s transformation was when he saw him after years, still young and beautiful.

Since Dorian was very easy to manipulate, it is questionable whether he had always been innocent or whether he had always hidden a dark side. During the debauchery, the reader learns that his evilness could be in his blood. All his ancestors had a horrific past, so it is questionable whether Henry’s influence is the real reason why Dorian changed so quickly.

Lastly during the downfall, the reader learns that Dorian had many regrets and wanted to start a fresh new life. Unfortunately, his wish was not fulfilled and the portrait, that incarnated the Devil, won over him.

The novel teaches us that every innocent, pure facade hides a little devil waiting to emerge. It is then hard to believe whether his fate was really influenced by Lord Henri or was already written.

Therefore, it is questionable whether his transformation was inevitable, or he had a chance to turn back.

As mentioned previously, he had the chance to listen to Basil and not follow Lord Henri. However, since Henri was very manipulative, he chose to follow him. His transformation was then inevitable, because once he fell in the trap, there was no way out.

Another key thing to examine, is whether other characters in the novel experienced any kind of transformation.

None of the characters experienced a development or transformation. The only one was Dorian. This also highlights Dorian’s considerable evolution throughout the novel.

In conclusion, Dorian Gray evolved in the novel, from a butterfly into a devil. He was first an innocent man, but once he started experiencing adulthood, he took advantage of his qualities and lived life to the fullest. Sadly, he paid a high price for the harm he had done to the people around him.

Despite his apparent wish to restart a new life, one could think that Dorian wanted to simply end it.